Author: damazah@gmail.com

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more news about how AI is changing our daily lives, follow Emma Roth. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.Long before ChatGPT became a thing, educators and editors frequently used anti-plagiarism tools to see if writers were being honest about their work. These tools work by comparing a written work against a database filled with content from across the web, scholarly articles, and more to check for matching sentences and phrases. Some, like Turnitin,…

For democracy to thrive in the country, the federal government must demonstrate tolerance for criticism and uphold freedom of expression by ensuring that all citizens, including religious leaders and the media, can question those in power without fear of intimidation or harassment, Davidson Iriekpen writes  Cardinal John Onaiyekan has never been one to shy away from speaking truth to power. Over the years, the Catholic cleric has shared his views on governance, justice, insecurity, corruption, national unity and the welfare of ordinary Nigerians, regardless of who holds the power in Aso Rock. His interventions have often unsettled those in authority. His latest…

When Derick Bowler and his wife moved to Trimingham on the Norfolk coast they thought they would leave the village “feet first” after being told they had 100 years before their “dream home” would be lost to the sea.The couple moved to the village in 2011 with Bowler’s wife hoping to replicate her fond memories of going to the beach every day when she lived in Cape Town, South Africa.Over the past 20 years dozens of properties in the village have become uninhabitable in a battle of man versus nature with the most recent home demolished in May 2024.”We’ve had…

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has inspected ongoing rehabilitation works at the Teslim Balogun Stadium and other sports facilities ahead of the inaugural National Intermediate Sports Festival, EKO 2026. Mr Sanwo-Olu, in a post on his social media platforms on Saturday, said the state was making progress with preparations to host thousands of young athletes from across Nigeria. According to the governor, the natural-grass pitch at Teslim Balogun Stadium has been completed, while work on the new tartan track is expected to be finished in the coming weeks. He added that indoor halls, swimming pools and other sports facilities were…

We told you on Friday that The Odyssey cracked the $1 billion mark at the global box office, and Universal is making it known that as of today the feature take of Homer’s epic is now director Christopher Nolan‘s highest grossing movie ever, ahead of 2012’s Dark Knight Rises ($1.085B). The current cume for The Odyssey is $1.1 billion worldwide after four weekends with $461.1M coming from domestic, and $643.6M coming from overseas. Nolan’s movies have now grossed over $7 billion worldwide, with Universal owning his all-time record and his fourth highest grossing, the 7x Oscar winning Oppenheimer ($975.8M WW).…

By Yinka Olatunbosun  Music surged through the hall as young dancers burst into movement, their energy transforming SPAN Space in Ikoyi into a stage of celebration. Laughter mingled with applause as the Society for the Performing Arts in Nigeria (SPAN) brought the latest edition of its six-month SPAN on the Road (SOTR) programme to a close with a graduation ceremony and dinner themed “Beyond Boundaries.” Held on July 14 at SPAN Space, Bourdillon, Ikoyi, the event celebrated the successful completion of the dance training initiative organised by SPAN in partnership with the Ford Foundation. For more than two decades, SPAN…

ARISE News is set to host a special televised town hall bringing together leading candidates in the 2026 Osun State governorship election ahead of the poll. The town hall is scheduled for Tuesday, August 11, 2026, at the Aurora Conference & Event Centre, Ring Road, Osogbo, with the livestream commencing at 11am. The confirmed participants include Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party; Munirudeen Bola Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress (APC); and Dr. Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Themed 2026 Governorship Election: The Battle for Osun State, the special forum is expected to focus attention on…

The Bible reads us. I asked a question during a Bible Study, “What will happen to the great men of the earth?” Nobody answered. Then I said the great men are all in trouble. God is going to deal very harshly with them. I then quoted some scriptures: “The Lord of hosts has purposed it, to bring to dishonour the pride of all glory, to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.” (Isaiah 23:9). “It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones, and on the earth…

In 2018 I bet my reputation and self-worth on a huge crowdfunded game design project. It could have been a failure for many reasons, but the one I became most worried about was losing all of the work that was stored locally on my home-built PC — a scenario that would have left a lot of people very upset and placed me in deep trouble. I wasn’t irresponsible, I had local backups, but at some point I found myself in custody of so many important files that it scared me. And no matter how many redundancies I could build at…

Israel has quietly given the green light for infrastructure work to begin in a designated area of southern Gaza, according to Israeli media, as it advances a post-war vision that experts warn is designed to reshape reality on the ground and permanently fragment the enclave.Dubbed “Green Rafah”, the project backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz is in eastern Rafah near the unilaterally imposed “Yellow Line”, the effective Israeli buffer zone squeezing Palestinians into smaller areas.Army Radio, which reported the approval on Sunday, said the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office described the initiative as an Emirati-backed pilot…